Cloud PE

Puppet Enterprise (PE) 2021.7 cloud images are available from Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.

Cloud images contain a standard installation with PE services running on a primary server installed in your chosen cloud environment. You can use cloud images to manage deployments of up to 2,500 nodes.
Restriction: Avoid cloud deployments with more than 2,500 nodes because cloud PE does not support compilers.

After launching a cloud image, you can use PE as you would any on-premises standard installation.

To get started with cloud PE, review the following information.

Cloud providers

PE cloud images are available from the following providers:

Licensing

Cloud images follow a bring-your-own-license (BYOL) model, so that you can use any existing PE license with your chosen cloud provider. With AWS, you may also purchase licenses directly from the AWS Marketplace by using Enterprise Discount Program (EDP) credits. For details, see AWS pricing information.

System requirements

For system requirements, see Hardware requirements for cloud deployments.

Security groups

For security information, see Firewall configuration for standard installations. For a sample security group policy in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), see Example EC2 security group policy.

Identity and access management

For AWS, follow Identity and Access Management (IAM) best practices to create the deployment user and role:

Installing

For installation instructions, see Installing in cloud environments.

Connecting agents

Cloud images contain agent packages for all supported operating systems. You can install agents by using any supported method. For instructions, see Installing agents.

To manage nodes outside of your cloud provider, or across cloud deployments, configure your primary server by running the update_agent_repos.sh script:
sudo /opt/puppetlabs/cloud/bin/update_agent_repos.sh public

Configuring DNS

In cloud deployments, PE uses the primary server's private hostname to generate certificates and includes the public hostname and puppet as alternate DNS names.

Managing nodes by their private hostname maintains consistency when nodes are resized or changed to a different image type.

Tuning

PE cloud images are tuned by using default settings for standard installations. You can tune your primary server in cloud deployments as you would any on-premises installation. For instructions, see Tune infrastructure nodes.

Running commands on nodes

When running the following commands on nodes in Azure environments, you must first switch to the superuser role by running sudo su:

  • puppet agent -t

  • puppet enterprise support

  • puppet infrastructure

  • puppet license

  • puppet lookup

  • puppet node

  • puppet plugin

  • puppetserver ca

Scaling

As your infrastructure grows, moving to a larger cloud instance or virtual machine (VM) can improve system performance. Follow instructions from your cloud provider to scale your deployment:
  • AWS – Change the instance type
    Tip: During EC2 resizing, your instance's public hostname and IP address might change. To access the PE console, connect to the new public hostname. Resizing the instance doesn't change the private hostname or IP address, and therefore no change is required for PE services or managed nodes.
  • Azure – Use the portal to attach a data disk to a Linux VM

Upgrading

To upgrade a cloud deployment, follow the instructions in Upgrade a standard installation.

Troubleshooting

In case of issues, see Troubleshooting cloud deployments.